Montreal, November 14, 2025
Adapted from story written by Timothy Dean
Researchers at the Douglas Research Centre are collaborating with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Northwestern University, and Creare, LLC on a study funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Pedro Rosa-Neto is a co-principal investigator on this project, that aims to better understand the relationship between auditory function and Alzheimer’s disease.
Hearing relies on the complex interaction between the ear and the brain: the ear converts sounds into nerve signals, and the brain interprets these signals to make sense of the sounds. The study seeks to determine whether hearing problems contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or whether the disease itself affects hearing ability.
The longitudinal study will follow 70 older adults with mild cognitive impairment, compared to cognitively unimpaired adults and young, healthy adults. Participants will be assessed over five years at three time points, including imaging of amyloid plaques and tau proteins, collection of blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, and neurocognitive testing.
The Douglas Research Centre will be responsible for advanced PET imaging and biological sample collection, while U.S. partners will conduct a comprehensive battery of hearing tests to evaluate participants’ auditory function.
This unique collaboration will provide new insights into the role of both the ear and the brain in hearing loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease and may help determine whether hearing tests could serve as markers for predicting or tracking disease progression.